Good morning! This is one of the 100 cards that I am headed out to mail today for the August Splitcoaststampers Cards for a Cause.

The cardstock is actually a very pretty dark purple from my stash. The sentiment is from Woodware. I used the Stampin Up Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer punch on the front of the card, then glued the punched flower on top of white paper adhered to the inside of the card. The little pink flower and bling are from my stash. I love how the Lace Ribbon Border punch really pops on the front of this card and hope it brings a smile to the recipients's face!

Celebrating veterans and watching airplanes fly

Today I had the pleasure of meeting some amazing WWII veterans and watching some of the airplanes that they used during WWII fly. I even got in free because I'm a veteran! Can't beat that for a good deal! I gave my husband the camera and let him capture the memories and found this picture below of my backside. I always wonder why we don't hand the camera to someone and ask them to capture the two of us standing in front of whatever it is we're there to see, but alas! I'm usually too mesmerized by the awesomeness of the attractions to think about the memory shot. Or maybe it's that I NEED a memory shot to help me remember to do that!

Before the air show I got a big stack of Halloween cards made for Operation Write Home. I need to cut the white paper to glue inside all the black cards, then get envelopes ready for them, finish using up the scraps and then move on to non-Halloween cards to fill a box and ship off before the end of August. It's nice spending time in my craft room again!

Tell me, what have YOU been up to lately?

OWH Midweek Throw-down

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Yes I know it's been forever since I last posted, but life keeps me pretty busy these days.

I've decided to make some Halloween cards for Operation Write Home and this one fits their Midweek Throw-down challenge which is to use punches. I used my Stampin Up oval and EK Success scalloped circle punches, a cute little Stampabilities stamp and some ribbon from my stash. The sentiment is from Stampin Up's Delightful Dozen set. I love the way the faux stitching turned out, especially the blanket stitch around the sentiment layer.

It's been like, well... forever!

Wow how time flies when you're having fun! Hey, you KNOW it's true, so don't even shake your head at me. I've been soooooo thoroughly enjoying this grandmahood (is that even a word? spell-check doesn't think so) and wanted to pop in to share a bit of what I've been doing lately. Yes I'm still making an occasional greeting card and have done a little scrapbooking here and there, but I've gotta tell you that this little guy has just made our lives around here so much fun! How could anyone possible look at this little face and not smile?

Oh by the way, did I tell you that my daughter is now a photographer? Yup! Well she's kind of doing it on the side now, still working full time, mommying full time and trying to slip in a photo op when she can. You can find her at Photography by Emily Baker here -

http://photographybyemilybaker.zenfolio.com/

How about another peek at the most precious little boy ever?

and back on a crafting theme, here's what I've been working on for Oliver. Just a few peeks, then the finished product will be posted when it's done.

This is my first attempt at strip piecing and really my first official quilt that will actually have some machine quilting if all goes right. Wish me luck!

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A card for hope

This card is for a woman recently diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. Please lift her up in prayer.

 

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iPad case from upcycled leather purse

Good morning everyone and Happy January 6th! Yes I had to look at the calendar to be sure because the past month has absolutely flown by so quickly that I thought I had jumped inside a movie set of the next Back to the Future episode! Can you believe that my grandson was born over a month ago? No, me neither!

In my last post I showed a little of our multi-purpose craft and hobby room in our basement. You saw my daughter and son-in-law working on their projects and also saw the snowflakes I'd been making. What you didn't see because I forgot to take a before picture, was the gorgeous navy blue soft leather purse that I took apart to remake in to an iPad case. Yes I'm too cheap to invest in a store-bought case that has all the sections that I need. Initially I wanted a padded sleeve that would protect it while being carried around in my messenger bag, but what I ended up with was a stand-alone, or should I say a carry-alone bag with the original shoulder strap put back on after I so carefully removed all the stitching. Well I kind of like the vintage looking stud thingies that were used to hook it back on, don't you? Oops, you can't see them, so I'll take another pic. BRB...... Okie dokie, here's a picture of that lovely brad thing that is holding the strap on. I also couldn't resist hooking the Brio! charm back on because it's so.... well, classy! It was on the inside and would be scratching up my lovely iPad case and we just couldn't have that, could we? I glued leather scraps on the inside to cover the metal brad pieces and also glued leather scrap flaps over the inside pocket metal zipper end and beginning. I actually made a wool fleece iPad sleeve, but it doesn't fit inside this new bag, so there ya have it... two custom fit iPad holders don't fit inside each other! Kind of like the whole reason for making this case is because after I got the Logitech bluetooth keyboard for Christmas (woohoo I FOUND my arrow keys!!!) I could no longer use the iPad case/stand that I'd been using. Anyway.... on with the show...

I left the outside of the back section intact so I'd have this awesome outside zipper compartment along with the smaller inside zipper. Having already removed the studs holding the top section together I had to cover the holes with the vintage brass studs below. I'm a real dork sometimes when it comes to figuring out how to put that sort of thing on and ended up with the sharp point of the tack coming all the way through the outer brass brad (ouch!). Luckily I had some smaller matching studs that I could flatten the sharp hooky points meant to go through the fabric, then glue over the mistake. Crossing my fingers that it will all hold together!

You can see how the keyboard fits inside very snugly. Since I use my iPad to take the pictures it's kind of hard, no actually quite impossible, to photograph my iPad inside of the case, so just use your imagination and trust me, it fits!

and when I carry it around it will look like this. There's room for my car keys, entry badge for my job, sunglasses, small wallet and a few other goodies, but most importantly there's room for my iPad!

Toodles!

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Happy New Year!

Today is usually a day of reflecting on the events of the past year and I must say this day is no different except that I haven't been watching all those shows on television. You know, the ones that rehash all the news and events and deaths and tragedies the world has experienced during a 12 month time period

So what did I do today? Well back up a couple of days, or better yet how about 4 weeks to be exact... to that awesome day when this little guy was born. Yup, he's one month old today!

Isn't he the most precious thing you've ever seen? Yeah, I think so too! I feel so lucky to have my daughter and son-in-law living here so I can help pitch in with grandma time and watch him grow. Can you believe they still ask me if I want to hold him? Silly kids! Speaking of kids, here they are in our joint multi-purpose craft and hobby room. Emily and I were cutting out paper snowflakes for Sandy Hook (see below). I just found out today that they received so many they don't want more sent, so guess these will be used to decorate something else next year. Maybe Oliver's nursery?

Matt said he finally has the incentive to get his train layout completed so Oliver can play with it. What fun to be able to all work on our crafts together. Oh yeah, we installed a small flat screen tv on the wall above Emily's area so we can all see it. This week we began watching Downton Abbey which is proving to be all they say it is and quite entertaining.

There are sooooooo many projects already floating around on my to do list for 2013, but for starters and for tonight I need to make a few "necessaries" for Emily. What would those be? Well if I tell you that she's breast feeding would that be enough? I found some tutorials for making breast pads out of flannel and either fleece or wool, so will make a couple of prototypes to have her try out, then will make a week's supply when we know what works best. I also unassembled a soft navy blue leather purse that I could never get rid of because I love the feel of the leather and paid far too much for it to give away. It just isn't made to suit my ever-growing space needs for an every day purse. Now that I have one of those keyboard case things for my iPad it leaves both sides of it unprotected, so I want to use the leather to make a slipcover/envelope-type case for it. Then I need to make a cover for the Kindle that Emily won recently. We have some ideas to use felted wool sweaters in a patchwork pattern to make a cover. I'll be sure to post pics of all of these projects after they're done. For now, enjoy the snowflakes!

 

 

 

 

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